Description

Circa 1805. 2-storey 3-bay L-plan terraced house with courtyard to rear enclosed by elevated garden. 4 stone steps to central recessed timber panelled door in moulded architrave with cavetto reveals and entablature; letterbox fanlight (altered). Cherry-caulked whinstone with droved sandstone tabs; rubble foundations with painted ashlar base course; raised and painted window and angle margins, eaves course and moulded eaves cornice.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: square-plan stair tower in re-entrant angle of rear range with tall single window. Additional brick-built outer stair from ground to 1st floor of adjoining 39 & 41 Eglinton Street (separately listed) covered with corrugated metal.

REAR RANGE: 3 bays to W.

Original timber sash and case 12-pane glazing to front windows; later glazing to rear including 4-pane plate glass sashes and modern timber framed glazing. One original 16-pane window to ground rear. Grey slates in diminishing courses; stone ridge to main building. 2 droved ashlar corniced gable stacks; some original octagonal clay cans; later red brick stack and further ashlar stack to rear range. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

STAIRS, RAILINGS, GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: flagged yard with long flight of stone stairs with cast-iron railings to elevated ground at rear. Ashlar sandstone obelisk piers and cast-iron railings; rubble whinstone wall to side and rear.

INTERIOR: much fine original decorative wood and plasterwork. Typical classical plan with symmetrical plan around central hall and staircase (vestibule and hall covered with modern panelling). Stair with cast-iron balustrade (acanthus motifs) and mahogany handrail. Former dining room: original black fossiliferous marble chimneypiece (bricked-up hearth); flanking 6-field panelled press doors; chair rail; window embrasure with reeded surround and panelled shutters (top and bottom separate); elaborate cornice with dentil, guilloche, rosette and diaper mouldings; blocked opening through to former morning room at rear. Former morning room: original reed-moulded timber chimneypiece with corner roundels; Edwardian gas lamp to wall above; chair rail; plain moulded cornice; blocked architrave. Former study: plain chimneypiece; panelled press door to L; cornice with egg and dart moulding and cotton reel astragal; ceiling with square fleuron at each corner; iron door to concrete-lined strong room; safe by Fraser & Co, Glasgow. 1st floor former drawing room (later scheme): chimneypiece with blue tiled insert flanked by panelled press cupboard doors; foliate cornice and ceiling rose. Service wing (rear range): stone service stair with plain cast-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail. Well in laundry room.

Statement of Interest

Eglinton Street is the grandest street in Beith and would have been a suitable address for a prominent Beithite (see below). The interior scheme is classical with an element of fashionable Regency style (particularly in the original chimney-pieces.) The original 6-field panelled doors and the window embrasures are of a high quality and intact throughout. The exterior is very well preserved and an excellent example of its type. Whinstone is a relatively uncommon domestic building material in Ayrshire (though often seen in the Borders), and is more usually employed for road construction due to its immense hardness. There are a handful of contemporary whinstone examples in Beith including 33, 35, 39, 41 and 60 Eglinton Street and the return of 15-19 Main Street (all separately listed). Whinstone was quarried in many areas outside Beith particularly to the N and E, and at Barrmill.

The first owner of 37 Eglinton Street is recorded in the title deeds as James Crawford, thread manufacturer in Beith. He established Crawford Brothers in 1775 at Crummock in Beith. In 1836 the Crawford family built a mill for spinning flax in 'North-bar', SE of Beith, which employed at least 80 people. Several houses were built there to accommodate workers and thus the village of Barrmill was formed. Crawford feued the land in Eglinton Street in 1805 from Mrs Rebeckah Montgomerie and continued to live at No 37 until his death in 1849 when the house passed to his son Hugh. In 1871 it passed to Hugh's brothers James Crawford and Allan Campbell Crawford. The property has been in the ownership of Stewart & Osborne Solicitors since 1938.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17829240

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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